Is the depressing marketing tag on the UK posters of CASSANDRAS DREAM, the current Woody Allen movie.

It then goes on to clarify, that this is of course, ‘a Woody Allen Movie’. The depressing thing is that it needed clarification, and that clarification wasn’t:’From the Director of Annie Hall, Manhattan, Deconstructing Harry, Bullets over Broadway, and about 40 other movies, of which at least 10 are works of genius and classics of cinema (and which number would NOT include Match Point), but instead ‘From the Director of Match Point’ - a mediocre thriller with average performances and a completely bullshit understanding of London and England’s social milieu.

Now just to be clear this isn’t a rant about Woody Allen. In my book the man’s allowed the odd off decade. He’s  73 for christ sake and has already given us so much (and early reviews suggest that VICKI CHRISTINA BARCELONA is a return to form) my problem is with a movie marketing industry so craven, and a film audience so ignorant and woefully short on memory, that ‘From the Director of Match Point’ is a considered, no doubt on some good evidence, a better marketing tag line than ‘From Woody Allen’.

I’m reminded of a comment I overheard in the cinema at a screening of ‘MEET THE FOCKERS’ - a young woman, probably in her early 20s asked her boyfriend - who’s that actor, you know the one playing the father with the fake breasts. I paused, captivated and horrified to hear what his answer would be: ‘You know him’  came the quick rejoinder in a tone of disbelief (phew at least the boyfriend knows who Robert De Niro is, I breathed to myself), ‘He’s that funny guy from ANALYZE THAT’

I was speaking at Screen’s Maximising Digital Rights Value conference about a month ago. Surrounded by layers of lawyers (including the lovely James Kay, slingshot’s very own shyster) as well as by Revolver’s Justin Maccacio, who feels like a bit a kindred spirit, I was asked what I thought was holding up the pace of innovation and digital revolution in the UK. My answer had surprising amounts to do with goats. Then a few weeks later, I was an after - actually during - dinner speaker at a Breakthrough Brits event, and was asked a similar question.
Between the two events, I had the chance to start to articulate a theory that’s been growing in me for a while about innovation in an established industry. Here, in 4 brief bullet points it is. I call it the Theory of the Goat People.

• Innovation in a hybrid world, part analogue, part digital is tough. Because as long as you are still dependent on the traditional, analogue gate-keepers to generate revenue for you; you have to play by their rules.
• One case in point: windows. If you are reliant on cinemas to show your film, you have to accept their exclusivity window. So any type of innovation - be it VOD previews; or premium VOD etc is severely constrained. So despite the widespread acceptance - and indeed evidence from the IFCs First Take experiment in the US - that this method of release does better for the films without hurting cinemas attendances. Whilst I’m using windows as the example,a nd its one of the biggest ones, the theory hold through across the whole spectrum of digital innovation: DRM, free to consumer content, re-faishoning,
• So most of the innovation happens by people who don’t care about pissing of traditional analogue gate-keepers. That means that they are people who are either so powerful that they can afford to piss of traditional gate keepers, i.e. the studios who can say, take my product whatever the terms OR they are people so far on the fringes that they don’t really need the traditional gate-keepers, because their product is made so cheaply, and appeals so directly to a niche audience that they can bypass the gate-keepers altogether. This latter category, I’ve christened ‘goat-people’ because one category of them are people making very special interest documentaries, like on goat-rearing, or Vespa Enthusiasts, or New Age Beliefs, or Sports Heroes, or Cult Artists etc - which can reach out to their audiences directly via the net and sell directly both physically or by downloads.

So innovation happens at the fringe and at the center. But not where the vast majority of the British Film industry lives - in the middle. This presents all sorts of problems - it means Slingshot and all our peers, who want to be innovating, are structurally inhibited from doing so because we ARE reliant on the status quo so can’t shake the boat.

That kind of sucks. We are looking at some ways to worry less about the boat and more about goats. We’ve just applied to take part in NESTA’s digital film innovation program, which on the face of it is a thoughtful way to instigate innovation in the middle. Watch this space to see how we do.

ps - Just in case you think I am kidding about the goat people, here are some examples: documentaries about Fainting Goats, Pygmy Goats,  Socially Relevant Goats.
 Goat Movie 1, Goat Movie 2, Goat Movie 3

Check it out on www.frenchfilm.com

(sorry, some weird bug is stopping me linking to it direct, work those fingers though, its worth it)